The Unfortunate One
by Vahditar
Summary: An injured bot lands on Earth and is rescued by the Autobots. Her origin is a mystery not just to them, but also to herself. Fragmented memories and personalities are rebuilt - but is it worth it? What if forgetting is better after all? But can you simply give up on what you used to believe, and turn your back on yourself? Can this "unfortunate one" ever change her luck?
1. Spall

_Many of the qualities that comes naturally from cyberdogs - loyalty, devotion and selflessness - can be elusive to Cybertronians._

* * *

**Autobot Central Command, Jasper, Nevada**

It seemed to be one of the regular, calm Saturdays in the Autobot base.  
After Bumblebee getting sick because of Megatron and Airachnid's encounter with Jack and Arcee, it was time for some peace and quiet.

Now Arcee was out with Bulkhead, on patrol, and the rest of the Autobot team was with the kids in headquarters. Well, Bumblebee was with the kids, anyway.  
Ratchet was doing something that a grumpy, solitary doctor would usually do in his free time.  
Although it didn't seem like free time, as the doc-bot was mumbling Cybertronian curses and mending the GroundBridge.  
That machine _always_ had some problem, especially after getting shot by that one time.  
Frustration almost radiated from the bot as the machine wasn't so understanding towards its caretaker: spitting sparks and now and then announcing some kind of problem. The two were almost like an old couple, as Miko would say with a hidden smirk…

The Autobots' fearless leader, on other hand, was somewhere else in the base, most likely doing something that Autobot leaders did in their free time. Don't ask what, because nobody really knows.  
Primes were mysterious creatures. You know, in their own silent respectable way?

"There! There's one!" Miko pointed at one of the pictures on Raf's laptop screen. Bumblebee's vehicle form, without a driver, knocking one Decepticon car off a bridge. They had no clue someone was there watching this. What kind of person hung out near a dry canal miles away from Jasper? People were weird.  
"And that's the third one today. And the third—"  
"Baking Monkey," the kids said in unison, as Raf did some of his computer magic and Bumblebee's picture switched to…something less sci-fi.  
They really didn't care to share with the world the information – that there were giant robots on the planet, and surely the government agreed with that too.  
"Wow Bee, you're gonna be a celebrity at this rate…Care to give me an autograph?" Miko said jokingly.  
Bumblebee abashedly rubbed the back of his helmet and beeped lowly.  
"Which is _not_ okay!" Ratchet announced while stopping for a moment with the GroundBridge. Bumblebee beeped something that sounded like an apology, as the young bot gestured with his servos.  
"I don't care Bee. If you're going to blow _our_ cover because of _your_ glitching, I _will_ ground you for eternity! Patrol somewhere you _won't_ get caught on cameras. Somewhere colder than Nevada, certainly."  
"Sorry Ratch. The Decepticons just have been little on edge lately, again," Jack tried to make things cool down. No effect though. Like anything could make the Doc of Doom chill…  
As Ratchet was going to say something back – probably something threatening and no doubt with the flying wrench of pain – the computer system kicked alive, furiously flashing red lights and making noisy sounds so that every human and bot in the building heard it; even Optimus, who ran into the command room.

"What is it?"  
"The computer detected a Cybertronian escape pod," Ratchet informed while pushing the buttons, satellite video popping up on the screen.  
Numbers and letters of human and Cybertronian alphabets mingled together on the screen as the satellite (which the government had given to Autobots) was processing the escape pod's information: calculating its coordinates.  
Video focusing on and sharpening on the falling object, showing an escape pod was falling fast and covered with flames after entering Earth's atmosphere.  
It didn't look very good.  
Actually, pretty bad, pieces flying from the pod's surface.

That's when agent Fowler decided to cover the screen too.  
"Prime, what's happening? An unidentified, large object is going fall from sky near Jasper!"  
"Agent Fowler, it seems that a Cybertronian escape pod is going to make a forced landing."  
"_What_? Who does it belong to – you or Decepticons?"  
"It's hard to say," Ratchet decided to explain, making Flower's windowpane smaller as he pushed it aside so they could look at the satellite video at the same time.  
"When it's falling that fast and making pod's heat shields overload, it is hard to make out any symbol."  
"Do you think some bot is still alive in there?" Jack questioned, as he and other kids were observing the video.  
"Not sure. Nobody is answering to calls at least," the doctor admitted quietly.  
"Well, who ever is in that, it needs to be taken care of before there's a crater and a bot body for people to see! I will sent immediate backup to cover the evidence, Prime."  
And so it was the end of agent Fowler's video call.

"You know, it would be fun to meet a new bot. After Wheeljack left, who knows? Maybe there's a new Autobot in that pod!" Miko wondered with excitement.  
"I will remind you, that last time we went to meet _new bot_, it was impostor in there," Ratchet grumbled, pushing some more buttons, then speaking with Optimus. The two oldest Autobots in the team made a plan on how to minimalism the damages.  
And how to save the (possibly dead) bot from the pod.

Regardless of what agent Fowler said, who ever the bot this was, they at least deserved to be put in rest without humans poking around their corpse. Besides, maybe Autobots could recognize who the bot served before their death.

* * *

Without going into too complicated and boring little details about how exactly they did it, here is how it did go in bigger scale. More or less:  
With some help from Raf, the small computer genius, Ratchet succeeded in hacking into the pod's controls and changing its falling coordinates. With some luck they also managed to online its automatic brakes, to slow pod's speed, even for bit.

Agent Flower had arranged army's rescue helicopter, and sent it to the crash site carrying tons of water to put the possible fire out as quickly as possible. He also sent an army vehicle to take the escape pod junk away before any people could arrive and see it.  
The landing place, according to coordinates, was going to be way over from Jasper, in the uninhabited area. Thanks to Ratchet's and Raf's hacking abilities, there would be a very small fraction of accidents and prominent things for curious people to notice.  
Finally, after some waiting, watching, loud crashing, lots of rumbling, and butting out the fire; the escape pod landed.

Bulkhead was the one to crack the escape pod open. Even after all the precautions they had taken, the pod was significantly damaged. It was battered, almost half melted, and burning hot. Quickly, the Autobots scooped out the bot from within and left, leaving the army to clear up the mess.  
Ratchet started the GroundBridge from Optimus's signal, and he and children watched curiously as the others came through the portal and back into the base.

After seeing the conditions of the strange bot with his own optics, Ratchet instantly slipped into his medical mode.  
"Place her on the medic berth, immediately. Every bot – and human – give me some space," he ordered and started to scan the still not-moving or any other live-signals-giving femme.  
She had lots of damages on her structure: holes, melted areas, and pieces missing. From long experience, the doctor could recognize the work of grenade. Luckily, it appeared that this femme had missed the dangerous hits. Still, she was very lucky to be still barely online.

Her mode was not a common one, Ratchet noticed while examining her. Even though femmes were usually built to be lighter and smaller than mechs from nature, this one was taller than Arcee, perhaps even as tall as Ratchet. She had unique servos and altmode mode, although she was still two-legged as Cybertronians usually were.  
Her body included more joint servos than bot's bodies usually did, especially on her middle body part and there was one extra joint servo in nearly every part of her.  
Her faceplate had scratched, and had one V-shaped optic in it. Sensory horns and communication antenna arrays had been shaped like sharp, pointed "ears," as the humans called them. Their equilibrium and audio abilities seemed to be raised up than they normally should for this femme's mode...  
Her mode seemed to be especially designed to maximise her frame's potential at flexibility and speed, still keeping perfect balance, even though her alt mode seemed to be Cybertronian jet. If those servos didn't belong to the femme's mode originally, they were quite drastic – and kind of new – changes.

After some scanning, Ratchet stopped, and Optimus asked what the femme's condition was. The medic frowned, then started to take out his equipment to begin the operation.  
"She's in stasis lock, and has suffered from severe injuries. Now if you please, give me some space to work."  
There wasn't any insignia on the femme, probably gone with some part of her chestplate, but Ratchet's oath as a medic wouldn't let him leave someone to die if it wasn't in combat. He wouldn't forgive himself if he ever purposely let innocent bot die in his care.  
If…_If_ this femme survived, she could tell them who she was by herself.  
All that she needed was some operation and Energon.

Respecting Ratchet's command, everyone left him to work in peace.

* * *

"So, what are we gonna do with the femme?" Arcee asked from Optimus as the rest of them gathered to discuss their visitor.  
The leader of Autobots looked at them all, then glanced across the base at Ratchet with the femme, before giving his judgment.  
"We still do not know if she an Autobot or Decepticon, or perhaps even a rogue. Until Ratchet can give us more information about her, we will treat her as a guest. If she becomes an enemy, we will try to persuade her join our team or let her go."

"Let her _go_? She will tell right to Megatron where we are!" Bulkhead predicted, but Optimus's statement eased all their minds: "_If_ she's a Deception. We still do not know, Bulkhead. Now, I suggest we do as Ratchet asked us, and leave him to tend the femme."  
The kids had to go back to their homes anyway, their guardians giving the lift and leaving Optimus and Ratchet alone in the headquarters. Knowing better, Optimus decided to leave Ratchet to work.

* * *

"She only needs now to online herself to pull it through," Ratchet explained as he and Optimus sat in the leader's office.

It had taken hours, but he had managed to strengthen and equalize the femme's spark's pulse. It had been so faint, like a little sparkling's, that one time Ratchet had almost been devastated as thinking he had lost this one. Fortunately, this bot was very eager to hang on, and the medic was sure that she had been at one point online for a little time.  
She was going to survive, Ratchet was sure of it, and proud of himself doing good this time, unlike with Bumblebee, who still couldn't talk.

"I'm proud of you, my friend," Optimus offered, landing his servo on the medic's shoulder plate (who didn't want to be thought too highly of himself).  
"Well, she _still_ needs to be operated on more. I couldn't cover some of the damages she has suffered. Some of her circuits and brain-module need their own time to rebuild themselves. And her—"  
"You still did good, old friend," the Autobot leader gently stopped the mech, deciding to talk about other matters. "Did you pick up anything information about her? Did you discover who she's aligned with?"  
"No, there's no symbol or data of which side she belongs to. But she's not civilian at least."  
"She's armed?"

"Yes. I'm not sure if it's part of her original mode, but her structure isn't the usual one. She's built for heavy straining. Her system uses the smallest quantity of Energon and has powerful vents to resist overheating. Her frame also includes many different kind of Cybertronian blades – ah, and also some manual tentacles on her pack. There are no heavy firearms in her possession though, only the usual integrated blaster cannon."  
"Sounds like assassin mode," Optimus mused, with raised brow sensors.  
"Yes it does. But like I said, they don't seem to belong to her original mode. It seems more like she has from the beginning been the simple jet mode. It can be that her height has also been manipulated. All that could have been painful to her structure, and hadn't been at all meant for that kind of mode."

In Cybertron, as the war was going on, there had been all kinds of operations on both sides as everyone wanted to end the war between Autobots and Decepticons. It meant being better than the other side, so everyone was trying to upgrade to stronger and faster frames than their opponents. Some rare times, those mode changes were so extreme that they weren't legal anymore because of the risk levels. It could be that this femme was one of those bots that got operated in the war. But by who, it wasn't clear yet.

"Hmm. When do you think she will recover enough to be talked to?" Optimus questioned, as there were so many things that only the femme could give the answer to.  
"Hard to say. It's not very familiar programming that her frame uses, I have to admit..."

"It's okay my friend. She's safe in here."

* * *

_**Next Day**_

"She looks a little bit different from you guys." Miko was first to say it, as the children had come back the next day. Now she looking at the new bot from the balcony.

"Miko," Jack tried to warn the girl, who didn't understand what she had said wrong.  
"It's not polite to stare someone who is recharging," Ratchet scolded and sent one of his glares Miko's way as he scanned the femme. She seemed to be better, even though she still needed lots of time to recover fully.  
"She reminds me of a Doberman," Raf commented, and started to explain after seeing Ratchet's face.

_Di–Did Rafael just compare a _bot_ to a _dog_?_

Miko snickered while Jack tried to cover his amusement. It wasn't polite to laugh at such things.  
"I–I meant because of her colouring–and the ears' form! I didn't mean that she _literally_ looks like—"  
"Come on, Raf, let's go play some games." Jack rescued the innocent boy from the shocked medic, which Miko couldn't let slip through, taking a picture of Ratchet's expression with her cellphone.

_How can a human, _Raf_, being the most intelligent one of the bunch, mistake a bot for one of this planet's fleshy creatures?_

"Ratchet, something will fly into your mouthplate if you don't shut it," Arcee noted casually as she walked past.

* * *

_**Next Day**_

It was just Ratchet in the base at that moment, taking care of the femme and repairing her chestplate.

He couldn't leave her protective shell – or other injuries that wouldn't repair themselves – this damaged and still call himself a medic. Since everyone else was out, he had the perfect silence to work. But after couple of hours, it was a little bit…_unsettling_ to be alone in headquarters, with somebody else who didn't talk or do anything. Of course, it was impossible for the femme, as she was still in stasis.  
Ratchet was worried, now and then checking her life support system in case of any glitch. He couldn't even seem to trust on his own tools to measure her life systems accurately!

"My name is Ratchet," he started, a little nervous.  
If anyone saw him to talk to himself when he was _actually_ trying to make connection with this femme (as sometimes bots could hear, even in stasis), Ratchet would never live it down.  
"I'm repairing you. Those injuries would take too long to recover if I didn't help, so don't worry. I promise that we don't want to harm you."  
After a few moments of silence, and before Ratchet could have been encouraged to continue his one-sided conversation, Bulkhead and Arcee returned with the human children.

So much for the peace and quiet.

* * *

_**Three Days Later**_

"So, can't you, like, read her database to see who she is?" Raf questioned as he watched Ratchet work on the femme. The medic let out displeased and unbelieving noise upon hearing this.

"Of course not! It's the most unethical – and also very dangerous – thing to do to any bot," he scowled to the human child.  
"Yeah? What could happen? This isn't like with Megatron. What if she's something extremely classified by the rulers of Cybertron? Or she's some other planet's robot?" Miko got excited as what she had saw in movies popped in to her mind.  
"I don't know _or_ care to read her database. And for a good reason. Do you humans just go in to your other minds when you feel like it?"  
"Well, we can't. But it would be cool though—"

The medic grumbled, leaving the two talk alone as he returned to his work.

_`Don't worry, I wouldn't do _anything_ like that. These human children just are…sometimes extreme glitches. But…they can be very helpful. Especially the smallest one, he's helping me with the computer system here. If you will stay here, I think you will get use to them. Sometimes they introduce earth things that can be…intriguing.´_

* * *

_**Next Day**_

"You have very interesting data stored on your structure," Ratchet stated after being alone again with the unconscious femme, as Optimus was in his quarters and the others were with their human companions outside.

"I wonder if you received some kind of operation to get it, or if most of it was already in your original mode. And about your wings…I will repair them when you online, don't worry. It's not going to be easy though, I don't lie, but I need you to be awake when I connect you to your new wings," Ratchet explained as he remembered the stubs and mangled wires that were the only things left of her wings.

"I'm very certain we are _all_ interested to know what happened to you," he muttered as he scanned the femme. Much better already, good. The doc gave a little (just a tiny) smile to his patient.

"Hopefully you don't remember anything of me speaking to you like this. Other's would surely think I've finally glitched from my logic circuit for speaking to myself," he half joked.

* * *

_**Eight Days Prior, the Day of the Escape Pod's Landing**_

_**Nemesis**_

_Doing his usual reading of the ship's database, the Decepticon TIC, Soundwave, twitched lightly for a moment and stopped his work._  
_The screen on his faceplate changed as his radar recognized a new Cybertronian life signal emanating from the planet._  
_It was very faint however, and the mech had to run couple of new scans to calculate where and who._  
_Unfortunately, the signal vanished from his detector before he could examine it closer, just as suddenly as he had picked the signal up. It couldn't be glitch, though. Maybe the bot had died for some reason._

_Although, he wasn't 100% sure of it – because the signal had vanished before closer analyzation – he felt for a moment, that the signal corresponded with one memorized data signal in his memory circuit._

_Further investigation would be useless, as the life signal was probably gone for good. Soundwave had far more important things to do now, such as read important data that Megatron had commanded to be analyzed._

_But just in case, Soundwave logged this happening on his memory database._

* * *

**Present, Tenth Day From the Escape Pod's Landing**

**Autobot Central Command, Jasper, Nevada…**

"—but I'm sure you didn't need that. I can already say that you are very tough in serious situations," Ratchet spoke to the still unconscious femme. He was getting ready to repair the damages on her front.

"And if you desire to stay with us and help against the Decepticons, I hope you will not get a human companion as well. The three we have – Raf, Miko and Jack – are already enough to handle."  
The medic turned to pick up a tool to smooth his work on the femme's injuries, so there wouldn't be any noticeable marks left behind. He was very pleased himself actually: he had done better job with this femme than with the GroundBridge, which always had some kind of problem and was never working properly.  
That's when Optimus came to the room, Ratchet worried that the leader had heard him talking to no one.  
But the mech didn't comment anything though.

"How is she doing, Ratchet?"  
"Far better, Optimus. She has made a remarkable recovery from her injuries when Bulkhead brought her here," Ratchet said optimistically, which was unlike him.  
The medic turned around to start his next step but suddenly he couldn't pull air to his vents.  
A tentacle had tightly intertwined around his neck, crushing the air pipes to his intake vents.

"Ratchet!" Optimus called as the Autobot leader activated his plasma cannon and tried to aim at the femme, who had the hold on the medic.  
Trying to get the tentacle release him Ratchet grasped on it, grunting and seeing alarming screens from his program. Through them he could see the femme who captured him.

She was still half laying on the berth, and even though her faceplate didn't show it, Ratchet clearly saw she was in pain. She had ripped herself from the tubes that helped her to recover; Energon was leaking from the feeding tube and the pulse meter was constantly beeping.  
She tried to move her body, to stand up, but her movements were shaky and stiff.

"No," the medic grunted, not sure to who. To the life-threatening femme or Optimus, who was ready to shoot at her.  
"Let him down," the Prime ordered while trying to get her into his crosshairs, but she moved Ratchet around with her tentacle like a puppet master.

Then suddenly the grip loosened from Ratchet's neck, the tentacle falling to the floor as the femme clutched her helm. She moaned in pain and tried to move out of the berth.  
Most likely she didn't have much of will to use her strength, as she didn't resist when Ratchet rushed to take a hold of her shoulderplates and place her back on the berth.

"No, you must not move now. Where does it hurt?" the medic asked while performing a quick scan on her before attaching the tubes back onto her. She made raspy noises, trying to speak, but instead she groaned from pain again.  
"I'll have to activate your cooling vents manually, so don't be alarmed."  
They hadn't automatically turned on, which was strange. The femme grabbed on his other servo tightly, her frame twitching in agony.  
"I know, hold on. I've almost got it."  
"What is wrong with her?" Optimus came to stand beside the medic, his weapon still ready.  
"She onlined too fast so all of her programs are not keeping up and are overheating."

Ratchet didn't have choice, he had to login the femme's system and force it to slow down to recharge. Fortunately her security circuit hadn't still turned on, so the doctor easily commanded her programs. The green light from her faceplate's screen was fading away quickly, and her systems followed.

The two mechs stood for a moment after this, the situation settling down.  
Ratchet finally noticed how his neck was aching from the tight grip she had put on him.

"I would say," Ratchet said, "that she will be ready to wake up _fully_ in couple of days."


	2. Revive

**Tenth Day From Escape Pod's Landing**

**Autobot Central Command, Jasper, Nevada...**

"She attacked you," Arcee exclaimed after all of the Autobots had gathered in the headquarters.

"We're sure it was merely from an instinct," Optimus reassured, looking at their medic to repeat his theory about the femme's hostility.

"Yes. We can't be sure what kind of situation she was in before losing consciousness. It could be that her program tried to continue right from where it was at last time. Because of her injuries we can assume she was at least in a battle. As she onlined, her battle computer also turned on and saw Optimus and I as a threat."  
Well, that sounded like a reasonable explanation, but still…

Bumblebee started to beep and pointed to the femme, still as a statue on the berth.  
"Bumblebee is right. It still doesn't mean she won't be a threat to us next time. We don't know what side she's serving," Arcee reminded, and her leader noded in agreement.

"And we will be cautious. Until we can be sure of her intentions, she will be behind locked doors and under supervision. We will take shifts and make sure that Ratchet doesn't get attacked again while mending her."

"And if she does attack?" Bulkhead questioned.

"We will restrain her and try not to harm her in the process. Show that we are not the enemy. But if it gets to the point where her actions threaten one of our own lives, we will have no other choice than to offline her."

In the Primes' name Optimus prayed it wouldn't come to that. Decepticon or Autobot, or anyone else, he didn't wish to waste any lives.

* * *

_**Next Day**_

"Hey, where's the comatose patient?" Miko wondered as she, Raf and Jack arrived. The femme and the berth were gone, and Optimus and Ratchet were with Bulkhead somewhere else in the base.

"Did she…" Jack trailed off, and Raf's and Miko's faces changed instantly.

Bumblebee quickly explained to the children the situation - or tried to - after all, nobody (besides the Autobots and Raf) could understand his beeping.

"She's been moved to safer room. There's nothing to worry about," Arcee translated, not caring to tell them about the accident.

"Ah, good. Because I've _really_ started to get curious about that bot. When will she wake up?" the girl couldn't hold herself back. She really wanted to get to ask the femme all kinds of things.

Arcee couldn't stop her soft chuckle after Miko said that. It was kind of a cute feature on that girl, how she could get hyped up so easily. But Bulkhead could keep her, Arcee gladly was Jack's guardian. At least he didn't do anything dangerous all the time just because of _fun_.  
Like when Miko smuggled herself into a mission by crawling beneath Bulkhead's chest plate. Or all the pranks she had pulled on Autobots. Or the other countless times when she had slipped behind the enemy lines _and_ pulled other kids with her…  
Could somebody remind Arcee again why she liked this human girl?

"In couple of days, according to Ratchet. Now, didn't you have some schoolwork to do, before messing up the base?"

"This should be a good place." the medic informed as Bulkhead followed he and Optimus by moving the berth the femme was on.

Optimus looked at the room, which was half the size of the main hall (where everyone else was at the moment).

This room wasn't far away from the hall, though, so if anything happened help could come in time, and iit was just as secure as every other place in the missile silo: thick concrete walls covered by metal plating, rooms door double locked and made of heavy metal, no windows or other ways to exit apart from the main driveway or GroundBridge.  
They only needed to fix up the room's two security cameras in the corner - nothing else was needed.

"Should we secure her?" Bulkhead questioned as he put the berth against one wall.

Ratchet shook his helm.

"No. It would just give her wrong impression - waking up by being pinned down would just be traumatizing."

"At least block her weapon systems for time being," Optimus offered as he and Bulkhead gave their medic concerned faces. Ratchet huffed, getting pretty irritated with all this babysitting. He was fighting for Cybertron long before these two could even fetch their own Energon cubes!

"Don't you treat me like a sparkling you two! I can defend myself, and this isn't my first uncooperative patient either."

Being older than others, or making a mistake _one little time_, and suddenly everyone treated you like a rusted handicap. After all the times he had fixed these younglings and _this_ was the respect they showed to him…  
But as those blue optics just kept staring at him, the grumpy old medic huffed irritably.

"Alright…I will be careful. But don't forget this is _my_ work zone and _my_ patient."

_Or the flying wrench of pain will invade, we hear you, Doc, _thought Bulkhead.

* * *

_**Two Days Later**_

After the incident a couple of days before, Ratchet had decided it was time to help the femme online again.

Hopefully _this _time she wouldn't going to strangle him. The last time had just come from instinct, like Ratchet had explained to everyone…  
Arcee and Optimus were in the room as well, but the others were with the children in the main hall. Too many bots could be intimidating for the femme.

As Ratchet logged in to the femme's program and gave the commands to _slowly_start her systems, they waited.

The room was silent, only filled by the noises of the femme's air vents kicking on, her body slightly twitching and her optical sensor wearily lighting up to a bright green. She didn't move immediately, just lay there and stared at the ceiling. She could have been looking at them too, but it was hard to tell because of her very one-sided faceplate.

"How are you feeling?" Ratchet decided to ask after a moment, still keeping track on her processing programs. So far everything worked as they should.

As if Ratchet's voice had woken her up, femme's helmet slowly turned towards them. Her optical sensor showing as she scanned and analyzed them.  
At least her battle computer hadn't turn on yet. That was good sign.

"…Not good," the femme finally spoke with deep voice. "What happened to me?"

Every Autobot, even Optimus, blinked with confusion and surprise as that was the question _they_ were suppose to ask from _her_.

"Do you remember what happened before you took the escape pod?"

"The escape pod?" the femme asked uncertainly, Ratchet seeing that she started to scan her memory base.

And it seemed that many of them were still deeply corrupted. Her scanning quickly became more hasty. Jumping through here and there the memory data to find a fully working one.  
This wasn't a good sign.

"You were severely injured when you came to this planet, Earth. You still hadn't fully-"

"Earth? What's that? This isn't Kaon in Cybertron?" she started to rise up so Ratchet of course was quickly putting his hand servos on her to make her lay back.

"No, don't try to get up."

She tried to struggle back, but she was too overwhelmed to do anything properly.

"Wha- What happened to my altmode? This isn't my altmode!" she mumbled frantically, scanning all over her programs and systems. Luckily her cooling systems automatically turned on thistime, but it didn't mean she was going to calm down.

"Optimus…" Arcee hinted, as they started to see that the femme was going into shock. Questioningly Optimus looked at Ratchet, who shook his helm.

_No, give her some time. This could still work, _he communicated to the Prime through a glance.

"Hey, listen to me. Look at me." the medic took a kind but firm hold of the femme's helmet. She didn't try to release herself, staring up to the mech who asked just a simple question from her: "What is your name? Can you say your designation?"

"Shrapnel."

"Good, good. Now what is the last thing you remember?"

"I-We-The street of Kaon."

"What were you doing there?"

"We-I had…a mission to complete. The war. We had to… offline…Decepticon…ship. A wrecker! But it wasn't Kaon where we were…It's…a ship."

"Easy now," Ratchet tried to calm her, letting go of her helmet and trying to see how much she remembered: "Do you remember being hit by a grenade?"

She kept staring, searching through files. She was going to short-circuit herself with this speed. She had to relax.

"No. No I-I don't remember. What's going on, why can't I-?" she trailed off, laying on her back. Ratchet could feel her staring at him for answers.

"It's okay, you're suffering from _damaged memory circuits_. Just try to stay relaxed. My name is Ratchet and I'm an Autobot medic. Do you know the Autobots?"

She nodded slowly.

"Yes. Autobot and Decepticon. The war on Cybertron…Earth?"

He smiled with relief, nodding to her. She wasn't completely out.

"Good, that's good. Now, I assure you that there is no reason to be alarmed. We don't mean any harm. Do you believe me?"

"…Yes. I believe you, Ratchet."

"Good. Now I need you to go back in recharge so your systems will calm down. I know it may be a lot to ask for now, but I will help you with it. Is that okay?"

"I-Yes, I think so. What happens when I wake up?"

"We will try again to bring you online without overheating your systems. It's okay. We will work things out. Now, try to go into recharge."

Shrapnel, as she had told her designation to be, needed some help from Ratchet to do that. She didn't hide her discomfort or confusion as the medic, who was logged in her system, helped her to relax and start the recharge program.

Ratchet couldn't help but feel pity for the femme: at one moment you were on your dear home planet, Cybertron, and fighting for your life - and in the next moment all of it disappeared and you woke up without any sense of where you were and what happened and surrounded by strangers. It seemed that there were whole lot of those empty gaps in Shrapnel's memory circuits.

After she was fully in deep recharge, the medic logged out of her system and sighed deeply, turning to face others.

"Well that's gonna be a glitch of a problem - not remembering anything." Arcee was the one to voice the main problem. So-called "Shrapnel" hadn't told much to let them know who she actually was.

"Especially to her. But she seems not to be threat to us, as she didn't attack Ratchet this time," Optimus thought out loud.

"But that could be because of the shock. We should still keep supervising her, just in case."

"And that we will do. Ratchet, when do you think she will wake up again?"

"I will check on her later," the medic answered, glancing over his shoulder at the sleeping femme.

* * *

As the three Autobots came to the main hall, everyone was eager to hear how it had gone with the femme. The video game that kids were playing was stopped and the couch quickly emptied as they leaned on the balcony's railing. Bumblebee and Bulkhead removed their attention from the screen to their teammates.

"So? How did it go? Is she awake yet?" Miko was the first to ask.

Ratchet grumbled something, moving past everybody to his workplace and continuing one of his many projects to improve his medical tools. They didn't need him to explain what had happened with the femme.

In the end, it was Optimus who told to others about the her awakening, her memory lost and putting her back into recharge.

"So…Is getting put back in recharge really a bad thing for you guys?" Jack questioned after taking a look at Ratchet, who was in deep thinking while working.

"It is not the recharge that he is worried about," the leader saw it fit to tell, before parting from the group to his own duties.

It was Arcee who explained their medic's behavior. "It's just Ratchet's way to take great care of his patients. He will do everything in his power to mend them. This femme's injuries are deeper than structure damages which are easier to heal."

"Did she give any information about her part in the war?" Bulkhead asked with interest.

"Not anything that will define her alliance, but she did fight on Cybertron."

"So neither us _or_ her know anything? _Boring_," Miko sing-songed with disappointment.

"Can't your memory circuits be fixed with Energon?" Rafael offered. Ratchet seemed to always need to use Energon when one of Autobots was injured.

"That is not how it works, Raf."

* * *

It wasn't so simple, just like Arcee had told Raf.

Circuits for mental processes were tricky and eccentric, needing their own kind of repairs as there wasn't any simple way to do it.

Of course the memory base was also constructed from the same things that a bot's structure was made of, but the circuits were also pretty much originally from the Spark and personality, and were part of a bot's more spiritual side.

As a veteran medic, Ratchet himself had seen a couple of cases where wounded soldiers couldn't remember who they were, their history, or even recognize their own SparkMate or others close to them. Sometimes they changed dramatically from who they use to be, and usually became more aggressive. It usually took many Earth years for memory circuits rebuild themselves, and sometimes they were never completely whole again. It was never an easy situation for the patient or their close ones.

And Ratchet had thought for a moment that he had made good work with treating this femme. But it seemed that this was going to be similar to Bumblebee, if the medic didn't try to do better.

As Ratchet and Bumblebee were approaching Shrapnel's room, the medic began to open the door's two sliding lock, but their audio sensors heard silent noises behind the door. The door was opened fast, Bumblebee's cannons ready and Ratchet's already dark mood even grumpier.

But the sight in front of them made him swallow back what ever snarky phrase he was going to use on Shrapnel.

The femme was on the floor, next to the berth. Half sitting and half rising from her knees. Or _trying_ to rise up.

Ratchet should have said to her that she wasn't in no condition to move yet. She shouldn't even be awake yet, but no, she had come back online without his assent.

She glanced up at them, tensing up for a moment, and then looked down.

Even if her facial expression couldn't be seen, it was clear that the whole situation _ashamed_ and _enraged_ her. She cursed silently as she tried to force her servos to work. To do even _one_ normal thing, like to stand up. But her whole structure shook and pleaded, and the femme collapsed back to her knees.

_"By the fragging AllSpark,"_ she whispered bitterly and tried again.

That's when Bumblebee snapped to action, shutting down his cannons and jogging over to help the femme.

"Why is it that you just can't _stay down_?" Ratchet demanded while approaching her as well.

She denied Bumblebee's help sharply, and tried again to rise, but she didn't have any other choice, and ended up using the yellow bot's other arm as a support to stand up and roll back to the berth, hardly covering the hiss of pain after getting onto her back.

Ratchet wasn't going to let this go so easily though. If she was ready to try to move on her own _without_ the medic's permission and _then_ deny help, she could take a little lecturing too.

"Well?" The medic waited, standing next to the berth and glaring at the femme who seemed to wait for her systems to cool down at first.

"…I was bored," she said in neutral voice.

Ratchet made bewildered noise, glancing at the young scout, who said nothing to this, feeling himself to be in an awkward position.

"Bored? Was it then more entertaining on the floor?"

"…No," Shrapnel answered again with blank voice, moving her faceplate towards the wall next to the berth.

In his mind, Ratchet sighed heavily, changing his tone to be more gentle.

"Well then, have you remembered anything more?"

The black-silver-orange-colored femme kept a small silence, before whispering: "No…I try and I try to find any kind of files that would be whole but there is _so little_. I can't remember anything _meaningful_. I don't remember my creators, friends, who I served in the war, why my altmode is different than I remember and…"

Nobody said anything as the femme tried to keep herself calm and collected, but as minutes passed, the medic tried to offer a little hope.

"You will remember, Shrapnel. Memory bases just need more time to rebuild, they are very complicated."

"You can't promise that, can you?"

Sadly, Ratchet couldn't. He wanted to, he wanted to assure her that he knew how to fix these kind of injuries, but he couldn't. This was just like with Bumblebee's voicebox.

"What will happen to me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Will I stay here or will you send me somewhere else?"

A small beeping interrupted Ratchet from answering that, and the medic looking at one of the machines that was attached to the femme. The machine that automatically fed Energon warned that it's container was nearly drained. Well, Shrapnel's injuries seemed to be healed as well as they could with Energon, so there was no more use for the machine. The white and red Autobot asked Bumblebee to take the machine away after Ratchet had unfasten it from Shrapnel.

"If you want to join Autobots, you can stay with us," Ratchet answered, trying to sound comforting.

She nodded.

"And…my wings?"

Finally he could give some good news to her, and the mech answered with pleased smile: "_Those_ I can fix, after you can properly stand up."

"I see…Thank you, Ratchet."

It was almost like he could hear a smile from that relieved voice as Shrapnel shifted her helmet to look up at him.

"As repayment, I won't take any _human companion_."

…So, she _had_ heard him, after all.

Ratchet couldn't do anything else than cough in embarrassment, avoiding looking at the femme.

"Just don't tell anybody that I spoke to an unconscious bot like that."

"Agreed," she nodded. She wanted her wings back after all. At least he could give her that much.


End file.
